A short summary of the LXRP- Wyndham Vale project is as follows:
- The Wyndham Vale stabling yard project is to enable much-needed interpeak stabling for the growing V/Line fleet, located on the Regional Rail Link corridor 40 kilometres south-west of Melbourne.
- The yard is also to provide fuelling capability to support V/Line’s growing fleet and increased service plan.
- This stage of the project is to provide stabling for 6 trains as stage 1, as well as future-proof for an expanded stabling yard and train maintenance facility.
- The project needs to cater for all operational, maintenance, staffing, security and amenity aspects of an operating stabling yard.
- The project objectives also include for mainline track and signalling work on the Regional Rail Lines and a turnback capability at Wyndham Vale station.
Our Role in the Project
Our T&S members were key drivers of the project, held senior roles within V/Line and help support a successful implementation for this important project, the first for V/ Line to deliver with the LXRP delivery agency.
The T&S representatives were appointed to provide leadership, technical and delivery oversight for the project. Through the subject matter expertise from T&S, V/Line were able to obtain a State-of-the-Art Stabling yard that was delivered on time, on budget and without any major defects.
Over 2 years, our T&S members provided key input and support in developing and delivering under the corresponding processes, deliverables and systems to enable V/Line to meet DOT’s investment lifecycle framework requirements. This includes key activities, deliverables and document output, as well as governance support.
Throughout the entire Development phase, the key T&S members had to ensure proper stakeholder engagement, management and consultation had been achieved in all activities such as requirement workshops, Design / SiD workshops, risk workshops, operational readiness workshops, MoC workshops, testing and commissioning workshops, bussing and occupations planning workshops, etc.
As this was the first project by LXRP to be delivered within the V/Line Regional Infrastructure Lease (RIL), there were several activities needing to be undertaken to enable this:
- The LXRP standard Program Alliance Agreement (PAA) needed to be amended to allow for V/Line to be a non-commercial participant in the alliance. This required review and negotiation with LXRP, as well as V/Line Board approval. Our T&S members provided this service.
- The LXRP project management and access requirements had to be amended to include for V/Line’s Safety Management system (SMS) and accreditation requirements. T&S members led this activity.
- The LXRP process of systems engineering and eliciting requirements had to incorporate V/Line Final Operational Requirements, Final Impact Statement and Concept of Operations, again led by the T&S members.
- The TOC period ran for 10 weeks, during which time the V/Line team members proactively participated in the following activities under the leadership of our T&S members to progress scope, design, cost and schedule.
- Concept of operations, modelling and operational feasibility assessment; during the TOC period specialist consultants were engaged to develop a concept of operations that both incorporated V/Line and State’s future service plan provisions on the main Regional Rail Line boot, fleet and stabling requirements, fleet provisioning requirements (fuelling, cleaning, etc), operational yard movements and constraints, etc. It became clear that the RailSys modelling of the future RRL main line service plan meant that only a reduced number of trains could reliably stable at Wyndham Vale, which had to be reincorporated into the Business Case objectives and benefits realisation mapping. Our T&S members provided support in coordination and management of these specialist consultants.
- Occupation plan and testing & commissioning planning also needs to include impacts on operational aspects such as access to / from fleet stabling, fuelling, fleet disposition, fleet maintenance access impact, staffing implications for signal maintenance technicians, etc.
- Construction methodology and planning; construction staging of track and civil, drainage and utilities asset relocation, construction staging of the signalling and train control systems scope, condition assessment of existing assets project planned to tie into, dilapidation survey prior to works.
- This was also taken through V/Line governance in parallel. Whilst key governance forums such as the V/Line Project Controls Group and Project Steering Committee had been kept up to date with regular status updates and papers by our T&S members, the final TOC submission also underwent Executive review and sign off.
Once approved, the TOC formed the formal transition from Procurement to Delivery. As contract award and the PAA were formally executed, our key T&S members could then start implementing:
- Budgets, cost codes, forecasts and other financial items set up in the V/Line accounting and financial systems.
- Project management plans, the full suite of alliance management plans, needing to be approved by V/Line and implemented 15 days after contract execution.
- Recruitment of V/Line staff in accordance with the approved TOC staffing plan.
- Mobilisation with the alliance to shared offices as well as on-site establishment with site-offices, laydown areas, secure compounds, fencing, etc.
- Site access permits for early works such as track side fencing to create a Greenfields environment for the future stabling yard, signalling correlation to inform detailed design, vegetation clearing to create on-site establishment, early work packages such as temporary works for roads, utilities protection and bulk earthworks, etc.
- Risk assessments to underpin early activities such as the site access permits above.
- All the site access permits also had to be underpinned by items such as design, works readiness, staffing plan, safety and access requirements.
- Through the construction phase, our key T&S members had to ensure proper stakeholder engagement, management and consultation had been achieved in all activities such as risk workshops, safety and HSE workshops and methodologies, work readiness process input, testing and commissioning development, bussing and occupations planning, staffing requirements for safeworking, signalling maintenance technicians, and other critical V/Line support staff, etc.
- The project was delivered and handed over successfully to V/Line operations.
